Modern Warfare 2 Locked Until Thursday For Steam Customers

Time for a helpful public service announcement: if you've pre-loaded a copy of Modern Warfare 2 on Steam, you won't be able to play it later tonight like everyone else.

Yes, while anyone buying a boxed copy of Modern Warfare 2 on PC had only to wait until November 10 (i.e. now) to play the game they already own, if you've pre-purchased the game over Valve's Steam service, you have to wait a little longer.

Despite both games employing Steam as a means of DRM — hence the lockout — Valve confirmed with Kotaku today that customers purchasing a copy of the game over the same system allowing retail buyers to play on the 10th have to wait an extra two days until Thursday, November 12. In Valve's own words:

Those who purchase the retail copy will be able to activate and play the game on November 10 via Steam.

Those who purchase on Steam will be able to activate and play on November 12.

We asked "uh, why?" and have yet to hear back from Valve, though we suspect it may have something to do with avoiding the rush. We'll update if we hear anything more.

Comments

Michael Guest

Nov 10, 2009, 3:34pm

Lol I went and bought my copy this morning, been playing it for hours. Thats like a 2 day delay! wtf! Dont worry, the campaigns not bad but the multiplayer isnt as good as cod4

I am so annoyed. Bought the retail boxed version (UK) of the game in the early hours. had to wait until Steam hit the hour mark in the USA to activate product. Now having to wait ages for the game dload/update through steam. Could be an age until I actually get to play something I paid for today. F*****G Joke.

Kne I should have got the PS3 version, at least I would then be playing it on not waiting on Steam.

My pc is better than youre ps3 brad lol at you :] Try playing crysis oh wait you cant ;] And i paid to play now not in a few F%*^& days last retail game i buy linked to steam. Thought i learnt the 1st time.

Sounds like some people got their first lesson in capitalism but for those who don't get it let me lay it out to you: Corporations like Valve and Activision do not care about you or anyone else except themselves and their shareholders. We've all seen it time and time again - big game/content producer shits on your parade and you get majorly pissed off "I'll never pay a single dollar to you again", "You've lost me as a customer for good" but you probably know it deep down that that sentiment can't last for long and that you'll be back next season to be fucked over all over again. The fact that they can continue to pull this shit is testament to your coming back.

Activision and Valve... 2 game companies I absolutely HATE. Activision for this year surpassing EA as the biggest, most "evil money-grubbing" company around, and Valve for continuing to release Half-Life 2 mods as full priced games. And for refusing to support/develop for the PS3. Not that I would personally want to play their crappy games on a PS3 anyway, but it's the idea of it that annoys me.

The real headline is that a lot of retail copies (and steam preorder copies) simply do not work. I cannot play this game that I purchased from JBHiFi because steam wont install the game properly. I get the same error from both disc install and downloaded install attempts. The support is completely inadept telling me to try reinstalling steam, which obviously I have done many a time. Kotaku should make a headline drawing attention to this to pressure a fix to be made for all of us affected by this tremendous screw up.

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